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“Rather than driving the piston down, the explosion of the mixture goes into the exhaust, still expanding as it does so. This creates a rush of gas through the exhaust mimicking the effect of running with the throttle open. Thus the diffuser still sees a flow of gas and maintains downforce despite the engine slowing down.”

Christian Horner: ?óÔé¼?ôFor example, Mark has a new floor this weekend, and compared to Sebastian, Mark?óÔé¼Ôäós chassis is slightly lighter than Sebastian?óÔé¼Ôäós. There are always those little mini-decisions that are being made. They?óÔé¼Ôäóve always been fairly distributed. The problem is when you have one component and two drivers, only one can run it. I think there?óÔé¼Ôäós this emotion that it was robbed from Mark?óÔé¼Ôäós car, but the front wings change between the cars.”

Comment of the day

STRFerrari4Ever looks forward to an exciting British Grand Prix – behind the Red Bulls at least!

As for Ferrari, McLaren, Renault & Mercedes I think there could be some very fierce battles. Firstly Alonso will want to finish on the podium to try to get back into the title picture whilst Hamilton will give his all in his home race to get a result to stay near the top of the drivers championship. Personally I have a feeling that Kubica & Rosberg could spring a surprise, I know it doesn?óÔé¼Ôäót seem likely after all the sessions that have taken part this weekend but don?óÔé¼Ôäót count them out.

Further back Jenson will have it all to do I doubt he?óÔé¼Ôäóll be able to make much headway so I?óÔé¼Ôäóm guessing he?óÔé¼Ôäóll end up with low points or no points at all. Strategy if there is a safety car or surprise, surprise some rain will be fascinating, seeing what teams & which drivers decide to take gambles will be very interesting.

Lastly one thing that could destroy a variety of driver?óÔé¼Ôäós races, is the Abbey corner that bump on full tanks & in a racing environment will cause many drivers to make some mistakes. Even the slightest mistake will leave a driver exposed going into the last sector particularly allowing the driver behind a run down the Wellington Straight. All these things being considered I feel this could be a very good British Grand Prix I sure hope it doesn?óÔé¼Ôäót disappoint!STRFerrari4Ever

18 comments on F1 Fanatic round-up 11/7/2010

I think Button will do a bit better than STRFerrari4Ever expects. Maybe some nice tyre strategy and a good start with some moves in the first laps could get him to 5-7 places.

And with Hamilton giving his all, he might just be the first guy to get thrown out on the Abbey bump early on. Maybe having to fight a bit back while Alonso will continue to press the leading Red Bull (i hope that will be Webber, it might force Vettel to do some putting pressure on someone and overtaking on track as well).

I expect the midfield to be pretty exiting with Button, Alguersuari, Buemi, Sutil, Kobayashi and HÃ¼lkenberg putting pressure on the likes of Schumi, Barricello and De la Rosa.

I hope Massa makes it a nice battle between Rosberg, himself and Kubica. Maybe with Hamilton joined in after going off at Abbey.

But it might just be a Vettel walkover, with Webber defending from Alonso etc. Than the only saviour will be Liuzzi battling from behind with Heikki, Petrov, Alguersuari and Glock.

I think the wing was on Webbers car, Vettels mechanics had made a mistake in attaching his to the car, so bad luck. The important thing is how Webber sees it, it gives Vettel an advantage over Webber and that’s not fair. The time gained 1thenth was hardly nessicary for Vettel, nor Red Bull.

As the argument for the FP3 times, those guys were running different strategy, so Vettel had a better chance of going faster, but still Webber was close (as you pointed out yesterday Keith).

I agree with Horner, that Withmarsh might easily do the same if confronted with the same situation, but i am not sure about it. With McLaren really pushing to be seen fair to both drivers they might take it off, especially if they would have such an advantage over the competition.

Whitmarsh HAS done the same thing before last season, so it’s a bit rich that he’s even mentioning this. For sure, we know that the difference between Hamilton and Button is a lot less than the difference between Hamilton and Kovalainen, but if there was only one part available, it would go to the faster guy…

The point IS about the small difference between both Hamilton/Button as well as Vettel/Webber when compared to McLaren last year.
A very big and desicive difference is, that McLaren discussed this openly with Heikki up front and he was OK with it, see his comments on the same subject made Saturday.http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85205

For example, Mark has a new floor this weekend, and compared to Sebastian, Markâ€™s chassis is slightly lighter than Sebastianâ€™s.

Easy to read as “Mark now has the same floor that Vettel has been using for the last race, and we’ve added a bit more weight to Vettel’s car as being shorter & lighter we need to meet the minimum weight limit”

i think Fernando might make his presents felt around the track this Sunday.
now that would make up for the lousy showing they had at Valencia.
his qualifying has certainly proved he has the machine to get the job done.
im going to root for him as Mclaren don’t stand a chance this weekend.
sorry Lewis, still hope you do ok as i need someone to support if you fall out.

Pretty deep insight into the retarded ignition for getting a consistent flow over the diffuser… Renault would definitely know about this, and I’m surprised that as the ECU supplier (and past EBD user) McLaren hasn’t gotten theirs to work as well as the RBR solution.

Getting the required amount of exhaust gas during deceleration should be easy once they find out the actual airflow values. Depending on the sophistication of the ECU or the other computers and how much the rules can be bent, it can easily be done in closed loop so that the driver doesn’t have to vary the throttle during deceleration. Just pressing a single button would automatically determine the amount of revs and/or throttle position required to get the required amount of airflow.

That is only half the battle though, as the diffuser has to be designed to make use of that airflow. We saw last year how Brawn owned the rest of the field in the first half of the season while others were busy trying to make their double diffusers work at all.

With the testing ban, it’s almost inevitable that 1-2 teams will come up with something revolutionary that skirts the rules and the rest of the field is having to do catch-up for the first half of the season.

Finally! Ecclestone talking about Grands Prix in Russia and South Africa! This is what I’ve been wanting for years: a championship that visits every major region on earth. For the first time, we’ll have a true World Championship!

Wow, i would just like to say what a superb race it was at Silverstone today.. Many thanks to all concerned.. All i need now is to find a little snack-bar where i can buy perhaps buy a “Maclaren Ham-Buttie” .. Any suggestions please? .. Once again, many thanks to you all ..